Eve Tushnet, a Catholic woman who is gay, speaks to some 200 people at Katie Mullen's Irish Restaurant and Pub in Denver on Monday, May 14, 2012. She spoke of her decision to remain celibate and live by the church's teachings about homosexuality.

There must be easier places to talk — into a microphone — about being lesbian, chaste and Catholic than in a crowded, noisy pub on Denver’s 16th Street Mall.

Even as the Colorado civil union bill was dying in committee at the state Capitol a couple of blocks away, Eve Tushnet was at Katie Mullen’s Irish Restaurant and Pub Monday night giving a talk, but not a political talk, about being gay in a church that forbids acting on same-sex attraction.

Her appearance at a speakers series called Theology on Tap, sponsored by the Denver Archdiocese, drew the largest crowd in some time, an organizer said. It was a supportive, respectful crowd.

Tushnet spoke of sublimating her sexual desires for women into expressions of love that do meet with the approval of the Catholic Church.

Where is your moral compass pointing? What are your social values? Hark will explore faith, morals, ethics and character at the intersection of religion ethics, culture, politics, media, science, education, economics and philosophy. At times this blog will alert readers to breaking news and trends. At times it will attempt to look more deeply into intriguing subjects. Hark means to listen attentively, and we will, as readers talk back to the news.